Family Adventures and The Last Bookstore

Howdy everybody! It’s been an exciting weekend for me with my mom and best friend from Dallas in town for the ASU game! It’s always fun to show people around the campus and city, and I want to share some of my favorite spots with y’all!

For my favorite spots on campus, you can visit my previous blog, but I’ll be sure to give an update soon! Today, I’ll focus on some of my favorite places off of campus where John, my mom, and I visited this weekend!

First and foremost, there is the Coliseum. While this may be a bit of a cliche, football games at the Coliseum are always a blast (even when it’s hot out)! There’s something about the Trojan pride and the student spirit that flares up during games and draws me in; I love it!

However, that was only the start of our weekend! We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles: Umami Burger. A fusion of the Japanese umami flavor and the American burger and fries, Umami Burger is a casual restaurant that has some of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten. One of the cool things about this restaurant is that, since their entire menu is designed with specific blends of the 5 flavors in mind, they do no substitutions on any of their menu items (although you can take ingredients off). And yes, 5 flavors, not 4. The restaurant is based around the 5th umami flavor and mixing it with the traditional 4 (sweet, salty, bitter, and sour). There are two main locations that I love to go to, but this weekend we went downtown to the Broadway location, which, although too far to walk, is close to campus.

Another really cool place that we discovered here is called The Last Bookstore. If you’re a book fan, this is the place for you! With sections for all different genres, both modern and classic, and with shelves full of old records, CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs and more, this place is full of gems just waiting to be found. The layout is also really cool inside, since they use books build walls and hallways. The location is actually an old bank that was renovated to be a bookstore, and the vault is still used for all of the murder mystery and criminal books! Below are a couple of pictures.

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I’ll be sure to post some more places in the future, so check back to find some more cool places! Also, for a little throwback, check out my blog about Magic Mountain!